Pathania, Raj put Services on top

New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Pacers Diwesh Pathania and Raushan Raj ripped through the opposition line-up as Services bundled out Jharkhand for a meagre 45 runs on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group C clash on Thursday.

Pathania produced a fine display of pace bowling to return figures of 6/19 while Raj finished with 3/14. Services ended the day with an 86-run lead after posting 131/9 in their first innings. Poonam (9 batting) and Raj (7 batting) were in the middle at stumps.

Electing to field after winning the toss, Services quickly gained control over the proceedings when Pathania and Raj scalped Jharkhand openers Ishan Kishan and Rameez Nemat respectively even before the visitors had managed to open their account.

Helped by the greenish wicket, the two pacers kept up the pressure on Jharkhand by claiming wickets at regular intervals. Jharkand’s plight can be gauged by the fact that only two of their batsmen — Virat Singh (11) and Rahul Shukla (13) — were able to reach double figures.

In reply, the Services batsmen also struggled on the wicket which offered a healthy dose of pace and bounce.

Rajat Paliwal (26) was their highest scorer on the day while Yashpal Singh (22) and Shashank Sharma (20) were the only other batsmen to reach the 20-run mark.

Meanwhile in Guwahati, Jamaluddin Mohammad claimed figures of 7/44 as Assam restricted defending champions Karnataka to 187 in the first innings of their Group A clash.

Shishir Bhavane was the highest scorer for the visitors with 65. His innings was studded with six hits to the fence.

In reply, Assam were on 21/1 at stumps with P. Das and Gokul Sharma in the middle.

In another Group A match, Delhi were also made to struggle in Jaipur as Rajasthan pacer Deepak Chahar clinched a five-wicket haul.

Chahar (5/60) received good support from fellow pacer Aniket Chaudhary (3/26).

Rajasthan rode on some good batting by Pranav Sharma (42) to post 74/3 at the close.

Also in Group A, Vidharba rode on a century by Aditya Shanware (119) to post 256/6 in their first innings against Odisha. Shanware was backed by some excellent batting from Ganesh Satish (53) and Jitesh Sharma (49).

Basant Mohanty and Suryakant Pradhan picked up a couple of wickets each for Odisha.